


Snakes, Snow, and Stars

by Scmnz



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Christmas, Crowley does handcrafts to de-stress, Crowley is Good With Kids (Good Omens), Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Warlock is part of the them now, Winter, both human and snake kids, but probably doesn't line up at all with other writers timelines, fluff and cuteness, holiday fic, wiggleverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-18 02:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21920278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scmnz/pseuds/Scmnz
Summary: It was the type of perfect winter day that didn’t really happen anywhere except for Tadfield. The snow was deep and fluffy, perfect for playing in. The sun glittered off of the snow in the park without any risk of melting it. Ten children played in this winter wonderland, five human, and five tiny snakes.…“What’s Chrisstmass?”
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley & their child(ren), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 198
Collections: Good Omens Holiday Swap 2019, Wiggleverse





	1. Snow Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serenity_Stardust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenity_Stardust/gifts).



> Written for the GO Holiday swap.

It was the type of perfect winter day that didn’t really happen anywhere except for Tadfield. The snow was deep and fluffy, perfect for canceling school and more importantly, perfect for playing in. The sun glittered off of the snow in the park without any risk of melting it. Ten children played in this winter wonderland, five human, and five tiny snakes. 

Snakes are cold-blooded, and so, as a rule, do not go out during winter, much less frolic in the snow. These particular snakes, however, had been read bedtime stories about winter fun and had begged to be allowed to experience it themselves. 

So, on a chilly December day when Aziraphale and Crowley went to visit their godsons Warlock and Adam, the children were allowed to come along. And when the whole group went to the park, Aziraphale blessed with divine protection from the cold.

The snildren (snake children) rested on top of the snow, too light to break its crust, and looked about them. It was rare that they were unsupervised in the open, but their parents had spoken to Adam, and the three had insured the park was protected and safe.

Azirafather was sitting on a bench talking animatedly with the nice witch lady they had been introduced to as “Anathema”. Father was huddled close by his side, seeking warmth, having stubbornly refused protection from the cold himself. He was, unknown to the children, keeping an eye on them from behind his sunglasses.

But what really held the young snakes’ attention were the five human children, Adam, Warlock, and the Them. 

“What are they doing?” Angelica asked.

“Making a giant snowball, obviously.” Junior rolled his yellow eyes.

“Look at that! They’re making another one!” Datura piped up. 

“I read about this” Rosa said thoughtfully. “They’re building a snowman.

They watched the snowman being built with fascination. 

“We sshould make one too!” One hissed and they all agreed excitedly.

Rolling snowballs, it turned out, was very difficult without hands. Constricting around the snow didn’t work. Nor did burrowing into it. Coiling all together they managed to get a rather lumpy chunk of snow, but that wasn’t satisfying. At last, Junior had success nosing at a broken off piece and rolling it forward with his snout. Catching on, the others did the same and soon they had five snowballs of varying degrees of tininess. 

Stacking them was the next challenge. They tried picking them up in their mouths, but protection from cold or no, that was unpleasant, and when they bit down too hard the snow broke back into loose powder. After a lot of work, team effort, and rolling replacement snowballs many times, they finally got three stacked haphazardly on top of each other.

Three of them burrowed into the snow to collect gravel and pebbles to use in the place of buttons and coal. The other two slithered to the nearest tree to hunt for twigs.

Once it was all put together they considered the final product.

“He’s missing something.”

Angelica jabbed her tail at the far larger snowman being built close by. “He needs a nose like that one.” 

Yellow and blue eyes looked at the carrot. It was about the same size as each of them, far too large for their own snowman. 

They stared thoughtfully for a while. 

A crunch of snow made them raise their heads. Adam was approaching the four black noodley bodies that stood out against the snow, and one white one that blended in almost entirely. 

“What have you got there?” he asked and crouched down to look at the ankle high structure.

“A snowman!” They chorused.

“We need a carrot though,” Junior grumbled. 

Adam nodded. “Gotta have a carrot nose. ‘Else it isn’t a proper snowman.” He said solemnly. 

Adam ran back to the other human children, and after consulting with them, Brian sprinted off towards the village. 

He returned minutes later and placed a baby carrot gently next to the snakelets, careful not to step on them.

All five hissed their thanks, and Brian looked over to Adam.

“What are they saying?”

“They say thank you.” He called back.

“Oh.” Brian looked down. “No problem. You know, some people think snakes or scary but I think you’re cool.”

As he spoke the rest of the Them approached. 

“Actually,” Wensdleydale piped up, “most snakes aren’t even dangerous. Very few are venomous. They’re actually good for the environment. They eat rats and cockroaches and things.” 

Brian and Pepper looked impressed. Warlock rolled his eyes. “Venomous snakes are cooler.” 

Angelica flicked her tongue in amusement. 

Carefully, Datura placed the baby carrot into the snowman’s face. All the children, human and snake alike, cheered.

The adults on the park bench looked up at the commotion. 

“Father! Azirafather! Come see!” The snake children cried upon seeing the attention on them. Smiling fondly, they got up and walked over.

“Careful! Junior snapped. “Don’t step on it!” They were nowhere near close enough to step on it, but his parents indulged him anyway.

The Them moved away to complete their own snowman, while talking about something quietly among themselves. 

Aziraphale crouched down and looked at the miniature snowman. “What’s this, children?” He asked despite knowing exactly what it was. They all began talking over one another, explaining what it was and how they had made it, while Aziraphale and Crowley looked at it appreciatively.

The snowman was, quite frankly, adorable. It was surprisingly well made and symmetrical, especially for something made without hands. Aziraphale cooed over it and praised how creative they had all been, how good their “itty bitty snow-gentlemen” was. Meanwhile, Crowley snapped several pictures of the snowman and the children with his phone. Crowley would never admit to being one of those proud parents with hundreds of photos of his children, but he absolutely was. 

Adam approached again a few minutes later, after Crowley had at least a hundred new photos on his phone, and crouched down to address the snakes. “We’re going to go sledding,” he pointed to a relatively gentle slope in the park. “Wanna join.”

“Whatss ssledding?”

Aziraphale and Crowley shared a worried glance. “I’m not sure that’s a very good idea, Adam,” Aziraphale tried. 

Of course, children being children, this did not go over well. “Whatever sledding is, I want to do it!” “We’re big! We can handle it!” “But Azirafather, we want to!” and other hissed complaints, all the children except for clem demanding to be allowed to go sledding, despite having no idea what that was.

Crowley sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on them, angel, make sure everything stays safe.”

Aziraphale hesitated. He  _ had _ been looking for a chance to talk to Anathema alone, but he did not want that opportunity to come at the cost of his precious little ones going down steep hills at dangerous speeds. (The hill was not at all steep.)

“Please Azirafather! Please!” 

Adam’s eyes glowed oddly for a second. “Nothing bad will happen, I promise.”

Aziraphale looked at the nine pairs of pleading eyes focused on him. The them seemed to have latched onto the idea just as strongly as his own children. Clem was the only one who did not seem enthused by the idea, coiling in on himself and avoiding eye contact. 

Aziraphale let out a breath. “Oh alright then.” He sighed. “But Clem stays with me.”

Clem looked immensely relieved and slithered up to Aziraphale. “Thank you Azirafather,” he hissed.

“Oh course my dear.” He lowered an arm and Clem slipped into the warm safety of his coat sleeve.

The children with arms fist-bumped and high fived, chattering excitedly. They each scooped up a little snake, except for Adam, and dashed for the hill, Crowley following after and shivering slightly. Aziraphale knew better than to try and convince him to accept a blessing of warmth when he was being stubborn like this, the poor dear. 

Aziraphale returned to the bench and sat by Anathema. They watching the retreating children with concern for a moment.

Anathema patted his shoulder. “They’ll be fine, and the independence is good for them.”

Aziraphale sighed. “I know, and it’s very good for them, getting to play with other children. I just… Worry.”

Anathema nodded. “The Them usually don’t let adults watch their games. I’m surprised they’re letting you and Crowley keep as close an eye on this as they are.”

“They really are being quite kind.” Aziraphale shifted awkwardly. “There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about…” he said hesitantly. Clem poked his nose out of the sleeve curiously, listening in. “This will be the first holiday Crowley and I will be  _ together.  _ And I know it’s a frightfully silly thing to make into a big deal after six thousand years of knowing him but… I want to make it special.”

Anathema looked surprised. “I didn’t know you celebrated Christmas. That seems unusual considering… well, you know.”

“The angel and demon thing, yes. We’ve never done it before but I want to get a nice gift for him because- because I love him. I’ve always wanted to show him how much I care but have never really been able to until now” Aziraphale’s expression softened with fondness. “Anyway, he says he’s behind the commercial gift-giving side of the holidays. One of his ‘evil deeds’ he’s rather proud of,” he chuckled.

Anathema nodded. Clem listened in interest. Whatever this “Christmas” was it sounded interesting. It involved presents after all, and what child wouldn’t perk up their head at the thought of that.

“I just wish I could think of something to get him.” Aziraphale finished. 

Anathema sat and considered this for a while. Then an idea struck her. It was just sentimental enough that it might work. She told Aziraphale.

“Oh! Oh, that’s absolutely perfect.” Aziraphale cried, beaming with delight. “He’ll love it.”

Clem slithered up the sleeve and stuck his nose out the collar by his ear. “Azirafather? What’s Christmas? I want to give father something too!”

Meanwhile, at the top of the hill, a different discussion was taking place. 

“Actually, they can’t ride by themselves, they’re too small. They’d go flying off.” 

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”

“So they ride with us.”

“How exactly?” Warlock looked doubtful. “We don’t want to squish them if we fall.”

After some thinking, it was decided that each tiny snake would loop around a human child’s scarf, and ride down the hill wrapped around their neck. It was almost like they were cold, scaley scarves themselves.

This would, however, leave one child snakeless. Warlock gave Crowley a beseeching look. “Please nanny?” He had continued to call Crowley nanny after they reconnected.

Crowley grumbled, cursing himself for being such a softie when it came to children. But he transformed himself into a much larger snake than his children and coiled around Warlock. This would, after all, allow him to keep a closer eye on his own spawn, or so he told himself. 

With all the human and snake children, and Crowley, now situated on the sleds, they were off. They tore down the hill, the ride smooth and fast because Adam expected it to be. Shrieks and hisses of delight echoed about the park. 

Crowley and Warlock’s sled went to furthest, due to their combined weight. When they finally skidded to the top, it was a race to the top to slide down again. And again and again. Some of the snildren, it turned out, were quite the speed demons like their father. Even Crowley was having fun, despite the cold. 

On about their tenth time back up the hill Junior whispered something into Adam’s ear. Both children giggled mischievously. The original members of the Them  _ knew _ Adam, and so were keeping an eye on him. Not Warlock. He and Crowley around his shoulders were taken by surprise when a snowball hit them at high velocity. Warlock shouted and quickly retaliated, throwing a snowball at Adam. It missed, and hit Pepper in the face. Pepper threw snowballs at both Adam and Warlock, correctly blaming them both. Brian, not wanting to be left out, threw a few snowballs of his own, as did Wensleydale. This, of course, led to an all-out snow war. 

The snake children riding on their shoulders yelled encouragement and commands at their human mounts that no one but themselves and Adam could understand.

“We’re going to kick all of your butts!” Angelica yelled from Pepper’s shoulders. 

“No, we are!” 

“No, we are!”

Crowley smiled affectionately. Letting the children play together like this really had been a good idea, despite his misgivings.

Then, a snowball hit him square in the snout. Oh, it was  _ on _ . With a flick of his tail, several snowballs formed and began to float in the air, and he took aim. Sure, it wasn’t playing fair, but since when did a demon play fair. Warlock grinned. “Hell yeah.”

Half an hour after the first snowball was thrown, Aziraphale saw the others returning. They were soaked, and shivering, and were smiling like they had just had the best time of their lives. This included the tiny snakes peeking out from inside the other children’s coats. Aziraphale raised his eyebrows at Crowley, still in snake form and looking pleased with himself.

Anathema smiled. “I think it’s time we all warmed up. Newt has hot coco at the cottage.”

Aziraphale looked delighted at the word “coco” and did a happy little wiggle. He took Crowley from Warlock, warming him and all his children up with a snap, and bustled them off towards Jasmine Cottage. 

Soon they were all settled inside the cottage. Each human child was sipping from warm mugs of coco contentedly. Each snake child was coiled snug around said mugs, absorbing the heat after the chill of the winter day. The snildren squealed and whooped whenever the mug they were on was lifted or moved, like it was some kind of ride.

Crowley, too large to warm up around a mug, was instead wrapped around his warm, soft angel. Occasionally he would flick out his tongue and steal a drink from Aziraphale’s own mug, just to see his exasperated yet fond expression

. 

“I’ve been wondering,” Brian began, “if Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and Adam’s the antichrist, does that make his birthday Antichristmas?”

“Actually, Jesus’s birthday wasn’t on Christmas, it wasn’t even in December.” Wensleydale corrected. 

Pepper rolled her eyes. “If he even really real.”

Aziraphale hummed, gently stroking the top of Crowley’s head with his free hand. “You met the young man didn’t you, my dear. Did he happen to mention when he was born?” 

All the humans in the room gave Aziraphale and Crowley a strange look. 

Crowley’s tongue flicked out lazily. “Didn’t say, but the commotion about it started downstairs in, oh, the middle of summer?”

Unheard to the non-supernatural, a hissed discussion was taking place at the same time. 

“What’s Chrisstmass?”

Clem wiggled in delight, excited to have information to share that the others did not know. Crowley listened in amusement to the slightly confused account. Slowly he relaxed against Aziraphale and was lulled to a light doze by the happy chatter.

By the time everyone was working on their second cup of coco, the conversation inevitably turned to presents. Even the young snakes, hitherto unaware of the possibility, were excited. 

With Adam acting as translator the two groups, they excitedly listed all kinds of possibilities. Aziraphale surreptitiously took notes.

“What do you want Azirafather?” Rosa asked eventually, once the conversation was winding down and all the coco had been drunk.

“Some soft, warm socks would be lovely.”

The children collectively booed the boring “parent” gift. 

“We can think of something better” Junior stated with confidence. 

“But how will we surprise father and Azirafather? We can’t go out on our own.” Clem pointed out. 

Adam smiled. “I can take you guys, since I can hear you.”

Aziraphale fiddled with his empty mug nervously. “Now, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” 

All the snake children focused him with pleading looks. Somehow, even though they had snouts rather than mouths, they all managed to pout like Aziraphale, with the same power as the angel’s own puppy dog eyes. Or perhaps in this case, “snakelet eyes”. 

Crowley shifted and slithered onto the table. “You can work with Adam to order something online, alright spawn. No going out to shops without Azirafather or me.” 

There was a chorus of agreement to the compromise.

Anathema cleared away the mugs and the adults all retreated to the kitchen, to plot Christmas fun, while the children plotted on their own.


	2. Christmas Day

Christmas day dawned early at the bookshop. Aziraphale and Crowley may not have had human children, but some things are constant, and one of those is excited children waking up far too early on Christmas morning. And so it was that they woke up to the sound of five excited snake children shouting at the top of their tiny lungs, at an hour that was too early even by Aziraphale’s standards. 

Crowley groaned, burrowing deeper under the covers. 

Aziraphale sighed, pulling himself from bed. The children would doubtless continue like this until one of them got up, so it might as well be him. He slipped his feet into the worn-out tartan slippers Crowley detested and shuffled down the stairs. Five eager snouts turned to face him. 

“Azirafather! It’s Christmasss!” 

He smiled, despite the early hour. “I know my darlings.” He opened the terrarium door and was soon covered in snakes happily wriggling up his arms. “You also know that father isn’t a morning demon.”

This slight admonishment did nothing to curb their enthusiasm. “It snowed last night!” Rosa declared, and indeed there was a thick white blanket of snow outside the shop window. Too thick and too white. Aziraphale suspected that may have been the work of a particular demon and the sense of romance he would deny having. Aziraphale smiled at it affectionately. He would have to tease Crowley about this later. 

Aziraphale moved to the small kitchenette to make himself some tea, and the coffee Crowley would surely need. The snabies rode along on his shoulders, wriggling like crazy. “I know you’re all very excited, but if you keep that up one of you is going to fall off.” He started the kettle boiling. 

“After you get tea, presentsss?” Junior hissed. 

Aziraphale glanced at the clock. It was barely 5 am. “Not yet Junior.” Trying to make them wait too long would be a lost cause, but he has planned for this. “Did Adam and the others tell you about stockings?”

“It means ssocks. You said you wanted socks but that’s not interessting at all!” 

Aziraphale chuckled. “Well, yes. But stockings are, on Christmas, ‘socks’ filled with small presents you can open now while you wait, my dears.”

This gained their interest. 

There was no fireplace in the bookshop, Aziraphale would never risk his precious volumes like that. In any case, he and Crowley had not attempted to explain Santa Claus, so that wouldn’t matter. Instead, he made his way with his children on board to the staircase.

Carefully he unhooked the five little stockings hung there, and the two slightly larger ones. They were red and white, and each had a name embroidered on it along the top, with an embroidered snake curling around the name. Crowley had done those, all the while insisting that it wasn’t a big deal, just something to keep his hands busy. 

The kettle hissed and Aziraphale made his way back to it, depositing the stockings on the kitchen table, along with the five curious snakes. Just then he heard a thump from upstairs and smiled. It seemed Crowley was finally up and about. 

Aziraphale had just finished making the tea when Crowley emerged, hair sticking up and looking groggy. “Morning angel, morning spawn.”

“Father you’re late!” Angelica accused.

“I think you’ll find that you lot are early. What have you got there?” 

“Stockings!” The voice came out of one of said stockings, Angelica had already slithered inside it to look. 

Aziraphale hummed, handing Crowley the cup of coffee.

“Azirafather what’s this?” Came a voice from another stocking. It wriggled and Clem’s snout just barely poked out the end of it. 

“What’s what dear? I can’t see in there.”

He dragged out a small box. 

“Ah, that’s a chocolate-covered cricket, a special treat.”

“Aw, but  _ I  _ want a chocolate-covered cricket whined Junior. 

“Look in your stocking then dear. You each have one of your own.”

Each child pulled various treats and toys out of their stockings, demanding an explanation to each, while Aziraphale and Crowley drank their beverages.

“That’s a bouncy ball.”

“That’s a sunning rock for the shop window.”

“You know what that is.”

Aziraphale pulled a massage reservation, several candies, and a pair of warm fuzzy socks from his stocking when he finished his tea. He beamed at Crowley. “Thank you.” 

Datura rolled their eyes. “Azirafather you like boring things.”

“So you got socks inside of your Christmas sock?” 

Aziraphale shrugged and reached out to absentmindedly smooth Crowley’s hair. “They’re comfortable.” 

“Father what did you get?”

“Let’s see…” Crowley pulled out a number of chocolates, both bought “for him” by Aziraphale, and most likely to be eaten by Aziraphale. Then he found a booklet full of handmade coupons. (“1 kiss. 1 cuddle session. 1 dinner at the Ritz. 1 drive in the Bentley with no complaining.” And so on.) He raised his eyebrows at Aziraphale. “You’d be willing to do most of this stuff anyway.”

“Yes of course, but you still struggle to ask. I thought this might help.” Aziraphale gave him a pointed look back.

“Ngk.” Crowley blushed. That was just the combination of sweet and bastard he loved Aziraphale for.

“Father’s awake, so presents now?” 

Aziraphale couldn’t help but laugh. “Patience, not until after breakfast.”

“Let’s eat breakfast right now, as fast as possible!” 

“Now now spawn, you’ve got new toys to entertain yourselves while you wait.”

“And the Christmas tree is still up.” Aziraphale reminded them. They had been having great fun, the past couple weeks, climbing the tree and slithering about its branches, swinging on ornaments, and looking around the shop from the new high vantage point.

“How about a game of hide and seek around the presents. They’ll be gone soon after all.” Crowley suggested.

This sparked their interest, and soon all five were down the table legs and playing around the tree.

“I reckon that bought us twenty minutes or so.”

They were lucky, and it bought them a whole half hour. Crowley made pancakes for Aziraphale, and thawed mice for the children. 

Aziraphale savored his breakfast as slowly as he dared, watching out of the corner of his eye as the children grew more and more restless with impatience.

But at long last, after much waiting, the snildren’s “patience” was rewarded.

The family gathered around the tree. Crowley crouched down, looking at the labels on the gifts. “Let’s see, I know there’s one for all of you here somewhere.” 

“No!” The children cried as one.

Crowley raised his eyebrows. “No? But you’ve all been so riled up and eager to open stuff all morning.” 

“We want to see you and Azirafather open our gifts for you!”

Aziraphale’s expression went soft, and Crowley could feel his own doing the same.”You’ve been this excited because you wanted to give us something?”

“YES!!”

Crowley searched among the packages, mostly from Aziraphale and him to the children, and found two that looked different from the rest. They were clumsily wrapped, the paper wrinkled and lumpy with odd creases rather than Aziraphale’s neat folds. The tape barely held the paper on, and was applied at odd angles. The label was… unreadable. “Did you all wrap these yourselves?”

“Yes we did,” one of them declared proudly. 

“My goodness. How ever did you manage that?” Aziraphale asked.

“Clem held down the box while Rosa and Angelica pulled the paper over it. Junior held the paper and I did the tape.” Datura explained. Indeed, Crowley could see a hole in the paper where Clem must have wriggled out.

“Good teamwork.”

“Yes, very well done!” Aziraphale was radiating joy. The image of them all working together to do it, the knowledge that they had put in all that work and effort to do something for them, was very sweet, no matter how the end result looked.

“Seems almost a shame to unwrap them” Crowley observed. “After all the trouble you lot went to.”

“No! Open it already.” Five sets of eyes were completely focused on him and Aziraphale. Crowley snapped a picture of the presents before shredding the paper. Aziraphale was more delicate, carefully unsticking the tape and folding the crumbled paper to save. 

“Oh neat, a box!” Crowley teased. 

Junior rolled his eyes. “You’re supposed to open the box father.”

Aziraphale opened his box first. Inside it was a sky blue mug with fluffy clouds and “World’s best dad” printed on it. “Oh my darlings this is lovely!” he gushed. “It looks like I’ve got a new favorite mug.” 

Crowley glanced at the children, who were writhing in excitement that the gift had gone over so well. “You lot mind if I try something? I’ll undo it if you don’t like it.” They looked up at him quizzically. He snapped his fingers, and the wings from Aziraphale’s old favorite mug replaced the handle of the new one. 

Aziraphale practically glowed with delight. “Oh, it’s perfect!”

“Open yours now father!”

“What’s it going to say, world’s worst father? Most evil dad?” He joked.

“Of course it won’t dear,” Aziraphale reassured him, although that wasn’t necessary. 

Crowley opened the box, and indeed, found another mug inside. It was matte black with stars speckled over it, and the legend “World’s best space dad.” He felt his eyes go slightly watery and his throat go thick. He clutched the mug tightly. “Thanks, guys.” 

Aziraphale snapped, and the handle of this mug became a pair of jet black wings to match the other mug. He wrapped a comforting arm around Crowley and beamed at the children. “We love them. Thank you so very much my dears.”

“Yeah, they’re perfect.”

After carefully setting his new mug down Crowley looked under the tree again. “This should be next.” Crowley pulled a rather large present (comparatively) from the stack. It was larger than all of the children combined. Aziraphale raised his eyebrows. Most of the gifts for the children were from both of them, but this one was labeled as just from Crowley to “everyone”. 

“That’s a bit large for them, don’t you think? Whatever could it be?” Aziraphale observed. This was the one gift from Crowley he didn’t know about beforehand.

“They can unwrap it, if they like.”

The children slithered up the sides of the box, grabbed mouthfuls of paper with their fangs, and threw themselves off the sides, tearing paper with them as they slid down. It was a slow process. When most of the paper was cleared, Aziraphale opened the box. The snaklets peered in from the other side of the lid. Inside were seven handmade jumpers, five snake sized. They were red and a warm rich brown. His and Aziraphale’s colors. “My dear, did you make us all matching jumpers?”

Crowley shrugged, trying to act casual. “Yeah well, they grew out of the ones you made when they hatched. It’s no big deal.” 

Aziraphale knew better, but said nothing, instead sliding into his and handing Crowley and the children theirs. 

More presents were opened, revealing books, toys, bottles of wine (for the long suffering parents) and more. There was a reading light that could be operated easily by the snildren at night. Junior got a tiny pair of sunglasses so he could match his dad. More “boring parent gifts” were opened by Crowley and Aziraphale while the children mocked them. There were also some much-needed extensions to be added to their terrarium, the kids were growing so fast and needed the extra room.

One by one the presents were opened, until only the last one was under the tree. Aziraphale had hidden it behind the others in the hope that it’d be the last one, since it was the one for Crowley he had put the most effort into. The gift Anathema had suggested. 

It was wrapped in paper with a jolly pattern of snakes in Santa hats that he was almost certain the store hadn’t stocked before Crowley set foot in there.

“This one is for you my dear,” Aziraphale said, relishing the anticipation. Clem perked up his head, the only one aside from Aziraphale who knew about this particular surprise.

Crowley shook the package, holding it to his ear theatrically. Something heavy rolled around inside it. “A globe?”

Aziraphale’s eyes sparkled. “You’ll just have to open it and see.”

Crowley shrugged and began to tear through the paper. His usual style was to rip through it as quickly as possible, but seeing Aziraphale’s eager expression he opened this one teasingly slowly. 

Aziraphale rolled his eyes but let Crowley have his drama. It would be worth the wait.

Crowley flipped open the box flaps and pulled out what felt like a smooth glass ball with a puzzled expression. 

The sphere was a night sky. It didn’t just look like a night sky, it was a near perfect replica, showing constellations that had burned out long ago. “ _ Wow” _ Crowley breathed. “Angel this is… This is beautiful.” He turned it round and round in his hands. No human could have made such a thing.

“What is it, exactly?” Angelica asked with far less reverence than Crowley was showing it. 

Clem wriggled. “Can I tell? Pleease? I’ve been very good and kept it secret and  _ everything! _ ”

Aziraphale smiled gently down at him. “Yes and I’m very proud of you. Go ahead and tell dear.”

“Misss ‘nathma said it’s been trendy lately. Couples giving each other star maps of what the sky was on the day they met.”

Crowley swallowed hard. “This is?”

“The sky over Eden. And the rest of the earth at that time. As close as I could get it, not having seen the whole thing myself.” Aziraphale fidgeted. “I thought they were spectacular, gorgeous even before I knew you had a hand in making the stars. I’m sure you can fix anything I got wrong.” 

Crowley’s eyes filled with tears and his shoulders began to shake. It was all just too much in that moment. Aziraphale’s love, having a family and a place he belonged, having children and seeing their tiny faces happy around him. A map of the stars  _ he literally made  _ on the night he had met the love of his life. “I love it. Love you. All of you.” He managed to get out, sounding sappier than he would ever admit to being. 


End file.
